Forced to make the choice, children of baby boomers, known as ‘Generation Y’ would give up watching TV before email or text, a study of 18-24 year olds by Pace University has discovered.

The research into 206 young people’s attachment to methods of communication demonstrated that email and text were equally valuable to them with 26% of the vote. Third most popular was watching TV – 15% choosing that followed by talking on the phone – 11%. Visiting social media sites at 9% ranked higher than either reading magazines or visiting websites.

Why we love email and text so much is unexplored. Dialogue is preferred to reading or watching evidently and Pace say that while Gen Y they spend more time on social networks than the other options, it’s seen as the most expendable.